Wednesday, November 16, 2011Green Dot's Steve Streit Gets National AwardSteve Streit, the founder of Monrovia, California-based Green Dot, which provides prepaid debit cards and other products, has been tapped for a national award recognizing entrepreneurs. Streit was named the 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year in the Financial Services sector by Ernst & Young this week, joining other entrepreneurs like Reid Hoffman d Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn, and Andrew Mason of Groupon in being recognized in the awards. Streit was among nine entrepreneurs awarded in an event hosted by (More info...)
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Google Launches Music ServiceThrowing its hat into the streaming music market, Internet giant Google announced a new service, Google Music, today in Los Angeles. At a special event in Los Angeles, Google said its new service is an outgrowth of its Google Music Beta cloud music storage service, and will offer up a full, end to end service to allow users to discovery, share, and purchase music. The new service will be free, and will allow users to listen to tracks they already own, for free. The new service is open to any use (More info...)
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Quest Buys VKernelAliso Viejo-based Quest Software, which develope IT management software, has bolstered its lineup of products for the virtualization and cloud computing space, saying Wednesday afternoon that it has acquired VKernel. VKernel is a privately held developer of virtualizatoin mangaement products, based in Boston. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Quest said that VKernel will become an independent subsidiary of the firm. VKernel was venture backed by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Long (More info...)
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Chill Links Into HuluLos Angeles-based Chill, the social chat startup headed by Brian Norgard and Dan Gould, said today that it has launched a major integration of its site with Hulu. Chill allows users to view, chat, and comment on live video streams via social rooms, complete with avatars representing users. The site already allows users to interact while viewing content from VEVO, YouTube, Vimeo, and other services. Chill is venture backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Redpoint Ventures, Atlas Venture, and (More info...)
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Hulu Plus Extends To NookLos Angeles-based Hulu said this afternoon that it has extended its Hulu Plus premium service to the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet, the latest device to include the streaming video service as an added feature. According to Hulu, Hulu Plus subscribers can now access the service via a NOOK Tablet and Wi-Fi access, as part of their subscription. Subscriptions to Hulu Plus cost $7.99 a month. Hulu also said it will be adding support for the NOOK Color soon.
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Thismoment Raises $7.3MThismoment, a developer of software aimed at digital marketing for brands and ad agencies, said this week that it has raised $7.3M in a funding round. The firm, which has operations in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, said the funding came from Sierra Ventures. Mark Fernandes of Sierra Ventures joins the company's board as part of the funding. Other investors in the company include private equity firm Fenway Partners, Shelby Bonnie (founder, CNET), Jason Hirschhorn (MySpace, MTV) and Mika Sal (More info...)
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Coda Automotive Drops Sedan PricingLos Angeles-based CODA Automotive, the electric car startup developing sedans, has dropped the price on its Coda sedan to $39,900. The price drop is $5,000 below the firm's earlier announced pricing of $44,900 for the auto. Coda--which raised a huge, $147M Series D funding in September--opened up a new headquarters in Los Angeles last week in a big event with Governor Jerry Brown. The pricing move was first noted by GigaOm.
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Science, Headed by Mike Jones, To Launch Digital StartupsScience, Inc., a new, Santa Monica based company headed by former Myspace CEO Mike Jones, announced this morning that it has scored capital and funding, and is building a "technology studio" to develop new businesses, provide them with advice, and provide them with funding. The new firm said it is backed by Rustic Canyon, White Star Capital, The Social+Capital Partnership, Tomorrow Ventures, Siemer Ventures, Philippe Camus, Jean-Marie Messier, Jonathan Miller and
Dennis Phelps. Science said it (More info...)
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ServiceMesh Lands $15MSanta Monica-based ServiceMesh, a developer of cloud computing management software, announced today that it has raised $15M in a funding round. The round came from Ignition Partners. Servicemesh is headed by former venture capitalist Eric Pulier, and was co-founded by Frank Martinez. ServiceMesh provides software to help enterprise business units self-provision cloud infrastructure and enterprise apps. Frank Artale of Ignition Ventures joins the company's board with the funding.
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Amonix Gets LEED CertsSeal Beach-based Amonix, the venture-backed developer of concentrated photovoltaic solar systems for the utility market, said today that it has scored LEED Gold certification on two of its facilities. The certification included their headquarters in Seal Beach, and its production facility in North Las Vegas. LEED is a set of guidelines which rates buildings on their energy efficiency and CO2 reduction, and is run by the U.S. Green Building Council. Amonix said it has 214,000 square feet in its N (More info...)
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Miramar Inks Deal With NetflixMiramax and DVD rental and streaming firm Netflix announced this morning that the two have inked a streaming deal, covering the United Kingdom and Ireland. According to the two, the multi-year, digital licensing covers Miramax films, and will allow Netflix members in the UK and Ireland to stream titles starting in early 2012. Financial details of the deal were not announced.
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Domain, Versant Score Exit At Clovis OncologyTwo, Southern California venture investors have scored an exit this morning with the IPO of Clovis Oncology. San Diego's Domain Associates and Newport Beach-based Versant Ventures are both significant investors in Clovis, which priced its IPO last night at $13.00, at the lower end of its $13.00 to $15.00 estimated IPO range. Clovis will start trading today on the NASDAQ Global Select Market as CLVS. Clovis was venture backed by Domain Associates, New Enterprise Associates, Versant Ventures, Aber (More info...)
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Ambit Biosciences Names CEOSan Diego-based Ambit Biosciences said today that it has named Michael A. Martino as its new President and CEO. Ambit, which is developing small molecule kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer, inflammatory disease and other indications, said that Martino replaces Alan Lewis. Martino was previously at CareFusion, Arzeda Corp, Sonus Pharmaceuticals, and Mallinckrodt.
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Broadcom Powers Samsung GALAXY NoteIrvine-based Broadcom reported this morning that one of its chips is being used for global positioning features in the new Samsung GALAXY Note. Broadcom said its chip, the BCM47511, is providing GPS and GLONASS data to the GALAXY Note, to provide location based information to the new Samsung smart phone. GLONASS is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. GPS system.
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